Chapter 7
Iwas working in the library with my dad when Loni’s ringtone blared from my phone. “I need to take this,” I told him. “I’ll be right back.”
“What’s wrong?” It wasn’t her usual check-in time.
“Um…sir…I don’t know if…it could be nothing, but I thought I’d let you know just in case.”
“What?” I barked. Dani had been harder to get ahold of the past couple of weeks, often texting me that she couldn”t talk. When I did manage to get her on the phone, she seemed very distant. I was starting to get extremely worried, and now my mind was playing through all of the worst-case scenarios.
I wanted to rush home to my woman, but we were closing in on a solution. I couldn’t leave just yet, and I fucking hated it.
“Dani had a doctor’s appointment today with an OB-GYN. Now, it could have been just her routine exam, but afterward, I started thinking. She’s lost a little weight, but not…um…everywhere. And when she went to breakfast with her sister yesterday, she shoved away the plate of bacon like it was going to jump up and bite her.”
“Thank you for letting me know. Keep me informed if there continue to be any changes. I need to make another call.”
I hung up without another word and dialed the number for a friend I’d met through Marlow. Jonah Carrington had built a security empire and was the best in the business, particularly in cybersecurity. When my company began working on secret, patented projects, I’d needed cybersecurity, which was when Marlow sent me to Jonah.
We’d become friends, and I’d put him in contact with some people he hadn’t been able to get face time with in Europe. Being royalty came in handy at times, and now, it would pay off big time since I needed to collect on those favors.
“Hey, Tristan,” he greeted when he picked up.
“Jonah, I need a favor.”
“Sure.”
“I recently got engaged.”
“Congratulations. I think. You don’t sound all that happy with the situation.”
“I’m not. I mean…I love her, but it’s complicated,” I said. “She’s everything to me. She’s my Penny,” I added, referring to Jonah’s wife. He was every bit as obsessed with his woman as I was with mine, so it made him doubly perfect for this favor.
“Understood, go on.”
“It’s a long story, but Philippe is abdicating—”
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” Jonah muttered. He was well aware how I felt about being king.
“I’ll tell you about it another time. But I had to leave Dani while I sorted this shit out and I’m worried about her. I have security on her, but…”
“I get it, man. What do you need?”
I let out a relieved breath. “First, I just found out she went to an OB-GYN today. I want the records for that appointment.”
“Done.”
“I’m going crazy without eyes on her, Jonah. But I don’t know what you can do to fix that.”
Jonah scoffed. “How little faith you have in me. What’s her name and address? I’ll have a file ready for you in a few hours, but it will probably take me a couple of days to get you more access to her.”
“Her name is Danielle Kendall and—”
I heard what sounded like choking on the other end and stopped.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, did you say Dani Kendall? As in one of Justice Kendall’s oldest twins?”
“Yes. Do you know her?”
“For fuck’s sake, Tristan. Justice is one of my best friends. Dani is like a niece to me.”
“Putain de bordel de merde,” I cursed. My hope for Jonah’s help plummeted, and my heart beat painfully in my chest.
“OB-GYN,” Jonah murmured. “You think she’s pregnant?”
“More than likely. We never used protection.”
“Fucking hell, Tristan. You’re putting me in an impossible position.”
“I know. But…shit, Jonah. I know you understand because if this were you and Penny, you would move heaven and earth to make sure she was all right.”
Jonah was silent for so long that I began to think he was going to turn down my request.
“I’ll get you her medical records tonight.” He huffed and muttered, “I can’t fucking believe I’m saying this. Justice is gonna put a fucking bullet in me if he ever finds out.”
“I already gave her a ring, Jonah. She said yes.”
He sighed. “Fine. Lucky for you, I handle all of Justice’s security. I’ll give you access to a few cameras we use to protect Dani. Not all, but enough to keep you from going insane.”
“Merci, Jonah. I owe you.”
“Yes, you do.”
He gave me a few more details, then we hung up, and I sighed in relief.
An hour later, I had an encrypted email containing Dani’s records, including the doctor’s notes from her OB-GYN.
Pregnant.
Dani was pregnant. I was going to be a dad. Putain de merde. I wanted to leave and go to her, but when we found the solution for the line of succession, I had to be there to sign the paperwork, and if I missed my sister’s coronation, she would skewer me with a hot poker, and I’d never meet my kid.
I didn’t know what to do. Dani came first, but in order to have a future with her…
“Son?” Startled, I whirled around when I heard my dad’s voice. He stood with my mom in the entrance to the library, both watching me with looks of concern. “Tell us what has you tied up in knots.”
Tired of bearing the burden alone and completely lost as to what to do next, the entire story spilled out of me. With the exception of intimate details, of course.
“What the hell do I do?”
“Is she safe?” my mom asked.
I nodded. “Even more so than I thought before, now that I know Jonah is the one who handles her security.”
“Do you think she may fall out of love with you?”
I reared back in horror at their suggestion. “Absolutely not.” I knew Dani’s heart. No matter what was happening to make her pull away lately, I knew without a doubt that she loved me.
My mother nodded. “Then you need to focus on what will give you two a future. And for heaven’s sake, let her tell you about the baby. If she knows you’ve been spying on her…good grief, Tristan. What were you thinking?”
I glanced at my dad, and he pressed his lips together as if trying to hold back a laugh. My parents” love story was notorious. When my father saw my mother the first time, he acquired a copy of her schedule and started showing up everywhere she went. After two months, she finally approached him, livid that he was basically stalking her. He’d kissed the fury right out of her, and they were engaged a week later.
I kept my expression serious when I nodded at my mom, not wanting to offend her. But when I walked away, I couldn’t help smiling. Like father, like son.
It tookJonah a little over a day to call me back. He’d hooked me up with the feed to her security cameras outside her apartment and the campus security so that I could find her just about anywhere when she was at school. I’d hoped there was a camera in her bedroom, but I was happy to be able to watch the one in her living room, at the very least. And grateful that we’d spent all of our time together at my place, where her dad’s team hadn’t been watching us.
The guards reported on her regularly, so it was rare that I didn’t know where she was, what she was doing, and who she was with. I stayed up late most nights to watch her go about her evening—doing coursework, watching a movie, reading a book, or having a girls’ night with her sisters.
I ached to hold her, and when I finally gave in to sleep, I dreamed of being with her. Not just fucking her, though I often woke up in need of a cold shower from those frequent dreams. But my favorite were the ones where we were together with our family. Our little ones running around, playing with their cousins, or all of us cuddling on the couch, watching movies. The longing I felt when I woke up was heavy on my heart.
Around two weeks after I found out she was pregnant, I pulled up the camera outside her place, since I knew she’d be leaving for class. I swore as I watched Dani trudge out of her apartment with her backpack slung over one shoulder. My brow furrowed as I took in her slumped posture and tired eyes. She looked a little green, and I wanted so badly to call her and demand that she go back inside and go to bed. I hated that I wasn’t there to take care of her. It was eating at my soul.
Not to mention the fact that she still hadn’t told me she was pregnant. I knew she wasn’t the type of person to keep it a secret from me forever, but it was driving me insane that she was waiting, and all the while, I had to pretend that I didn’t know.
Picking up my phone from the nightstand beside me, I tapped her image to call her.
“Hi, Tristan. I’m sorry, I’m running late to class, so I can’t talk right now—”
“You’re going to make the time, Dani,” I snapped.
There was silence on her end, and I figured I’d stunned her with my harsh tone. I hadn’t intended it to be so rough, but I was tired, frustrated, and worried.
“Loni tells me you’ve been sick.”
Dani sighed. “Tattletale,” she muttered under her breath.
“Why did I hear it from your security detail, princesse?”
“I didn’t want you to worry. It’s not a big deal.”
Being pregnant with our baby wasn’t a big deal?What the fuck?
“It’s my job to take care of you, Dani, even if I can’t be there to do it in person. But I can’t if you aren’t honest with me.” I waited for her to take the bait and was incredibly disappointed when she didn’t.
“I’m a big girl, Tristan. I can take care of myself.”
“I know that. The point is that you don’t have to. And I want to be there for you. I love you.”
I heard a little sniff, and my chest tightened. I hated it when she cried.
“I love you, too, Tristan. And I’m proud of the man you are. I would never want to change you.”
Something in her tone bothered me, but she hurried on before I could dig into it.
“I really do have to go. But I promise I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Merde!” I cursed when she hung up.
I almost pitched my phone into a wall, but it was the only way for Dani to contact me, so I stamped down my frustration. This shit needed to be handled right the fuck now.
A loud knock startled me, and I climbed off the bed and stalked out into the living area of my suite to find out who pounded on my door like a lunatic.
“Qu”est-ce que c”est que cette merde?” I snapped.
“I think we figured it out,” Philippe tossed over his shoulder, already walking away.
My heart squeezed, and hope sucked the air from my lungs. I only wore a pair of sweatpants, so I grabbed a shirt and put on shoes before practically running after my brother.
My parents and Céline were in my father’s office when Philippe and I arrived. They looked excited, more so than I’d seen any other time we’d thought we were close to a solution.
“Did you really find it?” I queried.
“We did,” my father confirmed with a giant smile.